East TN student journalist's ethics award bittersweet

He self-published story on professor's arrest after college blocked it

Apr. 15, 2013

Written by

Bob Smietana

The Tennessean

Robert “Alex” Green said that his professors at Bryan College, a Christian school in Dayton, Tenn., taught him to tell the truth.

As editor of the student newspaper, the Triangle, that’s what he tried to do — even when it meant reporting last fall that one of those teachers got arrested. After school officials spiked the story, Green self-published it and put 300 copies around the school. His actions caused an uproar on campus and eventually made national headlines.

“We applaud not only his courage in reporting the story but the thought process he shared with us about his ordeal,” said Tim Gleason, dean of the University of Oregon’s school of journalism and communication.

Reporting at religious schools can be difficult for student journalists, said Jo Ellen Werking-Weedman, a journalism instructor and adviser to the student newspaper at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville. School officials aren’t used to public scrutiny. In the past they were able to keep bad news in-house. That’s no longer true, she said.

Journalists like Green do their schools a favor by reporting the truth instead of allowing bad news to spread through the rumor mill, she said. “They can put facts behind the stories that go viral,” she said.

For Green, the award is bittersweet. David Morgan, the former Old Testament professor who’d been arrested, was one of his favorites. Green didn’t know of Morgan’s legal woes when he started working on the story. Bryan officials said that Morgan left to pursue other opportunities.

“I thought he’d gotten a better job at a bigger school,” Green said.

'Our obligation'

Green learned from an FBI news release and a report from the sheriff’s department in Catoosa County, Ga., that Morgan was arrested in an FBI child prostitution sting on June 24, 2012.

Green worked on the story about two months — getting documents and interviewing college officials. But Bryan President Stephen Livesay decided the story wasn’t appropriate for the paper.

“As we said at the time, we believed we were doing the right thing to protect the privacy of a man charged, but not convicted, of a crime,” said Tom Davis, Bryan spokesman, in an email.

Green believes school officials had good intentions. He believes students needed to know what happened with Morgan. He also feared there might be victims on campus.

“We felt it was our obligation to get the story out — as journalists and as Christians,” he said.

Posting the story online might embarrass the school in the public eye. Self-publishing, he felt, was the best way to reach the on-campus audience. He explained his actions in an editorial that referred to the scandal at Penn State.

“Printing this story will not cause a Penn State situation for Bryan,” he said. “I believe it will prevent one.”

Green’s story and the school’s attempt to block it leaked out to local papers and to the popular journalism website jimromenesko.com, and eventually made national headlines.

Reaction was divided. Some students felt Green had done the right thing. Others felt he should have kept the story quiet. Green worried the school might punish him. But he was not disciplined and said school officials never showed him any ill will. The president eventually apologized for spiking the story. Davis, the school spokesman, said there was no indication of any issues with Morgan at the school.

“There was never a hint of any impropriety on campus,” he said.

Integrity and truth

Green’s award is also bittersweet for school leaders. They are pleased at his success, but concerned that it brings up an unpleasant incident.

“A student’s recognition for significant achievement is a matter for celebration,” Davis said in email. “The matter that was the basis for Alex’s award was difficult for both Alex and the administration, as neither had experienced that set of circumstances before.”

Trevecca Nazarene’s Werking-Weedman said Christian schools have to live up to their values. That means allowing students to report bad news.

“The goal of Christian liberal arts education is to teach students to act with integrity and to tell the truth,” she said. “We can’t preach that in certain classes and then say, ‘Don’t put it in print.’ ”

Green said reporters from the Bryan paper are still keeping an eye on Morgan’s legal woes. The former professor was indicted in October 2012 on two counts of computer pornography, two counts of criminal attempt to commit aggravated criminal child molestation and two counts of criminal attempt to commit child molestation, according to the Catoosa County Superior Court Clerk’s office. A trial is set for September. There was no answer at the phone number listed for Morgan’s home address.

Green flies to Oregon in May to accept his award and to speak to journalism students.

He said he has realized that publishing a story can have unintended consequences. But he still believes he did the right thing.

Part of the Christian message is admitting when things go wrong, he said.

“We are a Christian school. This is what we talk about. People do mess up. That doesn’t mean that there is no hope,” Green said.